What you need
An Intercom workspace with admin access. You must be able to approve Intercom apps.
The credentials or assets for the first channel you plan to connect. Telegram is the simplest to try first — you only need a bot token from BotFather. If you already have Twilio, WhatsApp, Slack, or another channel configured, feel free to use that.
Step 1: Create your Octopods account
Go to the Octopods sign-up page.
Either click one of the SSO buttons (Google, Intercom, HubSpot, or Slack) or fill in the email, phone, and password form.
If you signed up with email and password, open the confirmation email from
notifications@octopods.ioand click Confirm My Account. If you signed up with SSO, you’re already signed in.
For full detail, see Creating Your Octopods Account.
Step 2: Connect your Intercom workspace
After signing in, Octopods takes you to the Connected Workspaces page. On first sign-in, this page shows the welcome state with the heading “Thanks for signing up!” and a “Step 1 of 2” badge.
Locate the Connect Intercom card with the message “Link your Intercom workspace”.
Click Connect. Octopods redirects you to Intercom.
Sign in to Intercom if you aren’t already.
On Intercom’s authorization screen, select the Intercom workspace you want to connect and approve Octopods’ access to messaging and contact data.
Intercom redirects you back to Octopods, and your new workspace appears on the Connected Workspaces page.
The workspace card shows the Intercom app name, a green “Connected” badge, who added it, and when it was last updated.
Step 3: Add your first channel
Click the workspace card to open it. You will land on the channels list for that workspace.
Because this is a brand-new workspace, the list is empty. Click the option to add a new channel — this opens the Add a Channel modal titled “Connect a new messaging channel to your workspace.”
Under Popular Channels, pick the channel you want to connect. For a quick test, click Telegram.
Follow the channel-specific setup. For Telegram, paste the bot token you received from BotFather and save.
The channel now appears in the channel list with its status.
Step 4: Send your first message
Your workspace is now wired up end to end. Here’s how to confirm it works.
From the channel you just added, send yourself a test message. For Telegram, open a chat with your bot and send “hello”. For WhatsApp, send a message to the connected number. For SMS, text the connected number.
Open the Intercom Inbox. A new conversation appears with the message you just sent.
Reply to the conversation in Intercom.
Back on the channel, the reply arrives — from your bot, number, or page.
That’s the full round trip: an inbound message reached your Intercom inbox, and your reply reached the customer on the original channel.
What to do next
Add more channels. Repeat Step 3 for any other channels your team uses.
Invite your team. Because Intercom already has your teammates, they just need to sign in to Octopods once with their Intercom-linked email to collaborate in the same workspace.
Configure channel settings. Welcome messages, out-of-office replies, and signatures are configurable per channel.
Troubleshooting the quick start
Intercom authorization fails. You need Intercom admin access. Ask a teammate with admin rights to connect the workspace.
Messages don’t appear in Intercom. Confirm the channel’s status shows “Connected” and that the message was sent to the correct number, bot, or page associated with the channel.
Reply doesn’t reach the customer. Confirm you sent the reply from the matching channel in Intercom. Some providers (WhatsApp, for example) have a messaging window that affects how and when you can reply outside an active conversation.
What’s next
See the Workspaces section for detail on managing your Intercom workspace
See the Channels section for detailed setup guides per channel